The City of Woodland California

California

Navigation

City/Community Goal Statements

General Government and Fiscal Sustainability

Ensure a balanced budget for the 10-year Financial Plan period that meets the requirements of the City’s Budget and Fiscal Policy.

This Goal simply states that the City must have a balanced and long-term financial plan in order to function as a successful local government organization. The primary measure of success for this Goal is whether or not the 10-year Financial Plan meets the requirements of the Council approved Budget and Fiscal Policy.

The organizational initiatives implemented to address this Goal focus on actions necessary to address the continuous structural deficit in the General Fund and to make sure that all funds include the resources to meet operating and capital needs while building up an appropriate level of reserves.

Public Safety

Within available resources, ensure that Woodland is among the safest cities of comparable size in California and that citizens feel safe in their homes, places of work and throughout the community.

The Public Safety Goal sets a standard in order to measure Woodland against cities of comparable size for incidents ranging from criminal activity to property loss due to fire. In addition to performance measures, the Goal also accounts for the public perception factor by recognizing the need for citizens to “feel safe”. In the future the City will need to develop the means to accurately measure public perception on a regular basis.

The organizational initiatives for this Goal focus on minimizing service level impacts associated with the reductions in the Police and Fire Departments. These reductions include the loss of civilian positions in the Police records and crime analysis areas, high level Fire Department management positions and the fire inspection/prevention program. Initiatives, such as regionalizing fire service, are intended to mitigate the reduction of services although such efforts will take time to implement.

Infrastructure

Sustain Woodland’s core physical assets, including streets, buildings, technology, utilities and parks to high standards in condition, appearance and efficiency.

This Goal establishes the maintenance, repair and replacement of infrastructure as a high priority and lists examples of physical assets. The City’s current commitment to the sustainability of core physical assets has been inconsistent over many years. While maintenance and repair of streets has been addressed through the 2000 and 2006 sales tax measures, some utility infrastructure assets have not been repaired or replaced in a timely manner.

The organizational initiatives identify several capital projects in this area with Surface Water a major focus. In addition, the assignment of the Parks Division to Public Works is included as the successful transition of this service will be a major restructuring effort.

Economic Development, Redevelopment and Development Services.

Guide Woodland’s development according to landmark policy documents and actions, including the Urban Limit Line, General Plan, Downtown Specific Plan, East Street Specific Plan, Spring Lake Specific Plan, 10-Year Capital Improvement Plan and other documents as approved by the City Council.

Economic Development, Redevelopment and Development Services are critical activity areas for the City. Without the investment of resources and time in this Goal, the City’s business environment will not thrive, jobs will be lost and opportunities to recover from the current economic downturn will be wasted.

The organizational initiatives for this Goal focus on continued development in Spring Lake; completion of funded capital projects; facilitation of redevelopment activity; restructuring redevelopment and economic development; continuing progress on flood mitigation; and expansion of the redevelopment project area. This is a challenging list of projects because the Community Development Department has been among the hardest hit organizations in terms of staff reductions during the last three years. Nonetheless, all of the projects listed in this area are of major importance to the City.

Quality of Life

Support the community’s ability to provide an array of education, recreation and cultural activities, events and programs for persons of all ages, abilities and interests.

This Goal reflects the City’s commitment to maintain certain services primarily offered through the Library and Parks and Recreation to the community. The beginning of the Goal statement consciously used the term “support” in order to recognize the City’s role in the efficient scheduling of its public facilities such as parks, athletic fields and the Community and Senior Center.

There are 13 initiatives that focus on utilizing the resources available to extend services as much as possible. Staff assigned to these areas understands the limit of their ability to offer services based on available resources yet are determined to stretch the resources as much as possible.